Sunday, August 15, 2010

Butterflies Bee Hummers Stingo sighting and Carnival thefts

HUMMERS and BUTTERFLIES

I got off my duff this morning and went for a walk along the eastern arm of Prickly Bay. Lots of impressive houses and impressive security with at least one patrol vehicle who slowed down and eyeballed me

I was taking pics of flowers when I realised that what I was looking at was not n odd flower with some kind of random arrangement of petals but a group of sleeping butterflies.No idea what kind as the butterfly recognition stuff relies on dead pinned specimens and they look so different alive with their wings folded.

The next surprise I got was a punchup of the tiny feathered kind. I knew right away that they were hummingbirds but they were moving around so fast in some kind of aerial ballet or dog fight that I could not even tell what colour they were. They were probably fighting over territory as I read that they are a stroppy lot.

The last pic is from the WWW.

I have about 50 pics showing blank sky or bushes and one or two streaks, these little suckers motor. I did not get one useable shot even on the motorwind option!

I got a pic of a hummer a little further on as they were quite a number around a big house which had feeders everywhere.

The ones having the punch up were really tiny and I thought they were bee hummers but that is not likely as they are usually only found in Cuba.

Still they were a surprise on this quiet early morning stroll.

Stingo sighting.

Trapped in the staffroom back in Luton and dreaming of sailing the Caribbean again I would be on the forums soaking up the chat and one of the regulars was this guy with the avatar Stingo. I enjoyed his posts as they were often witty and sometimes sardonic. Now as any real ale drinker in the UK knows Stingo is a very strong Yorkshire ale brewed by Sam Smiths and is really pricey. So for some reason I assumed Stingo was a Yorkshireman. It turns out that he is from South Africa a computer programmer retired in his forties and now goes cruising; a lot!

I had a couple of beers with him and his cat called "Cooking Fat". Nice cat shame about the name. I was slightly curious about the large bowl of marbles then it dawned on me that they were kittylitter.

The next is an excerpt from one of his posts.

p.s. It's always great fun when people with those nasty little mini adults pop in for a visit and start playing with the marbles. After a few minutes they always ask why I have marbles. Seeing the expression on their faces when I say "that is where Cooking Fat sh*ts" is almost worth the irritation of having the little darlings aboard.

Carnival Thefts

Lots of chat on the VHF about the cruisers who had their pockets professionally picked while they were in the Carnival Crush.

They reckon it might be some organised gang that follows the carnival circuit around the Caribbean. Two people had their pockets cut open with something very sharp and several others were just picked.